 
Makar
Sankranti is celebrated as a very important festival in India. Sankranti
literally means “movement.” Everything that we recognize as life is movement.
Fortunately, people who came before us have moved on, and people who come after
us are waiting for us to move on – don’t have any doubts about this. The planet
is moving and that is why it churns up life. If it were still, it wouldn’t be
capable of life. So there is something called movement in which every creature
is involved, but if there has to be movement, this movement has to be housed –
this movement can only happen in the lap of stillness. One who does not touch
the stillness of his life, one who does not touch the stillness of his being,
one who does not know or has not tasted the stillness within and without, will
invariably get lost in the movement.
Movement
is pleasant only to a point. The planet earth is moving gently in such a
beautiful manner – it is only changing seasons. Tomorrow, if it just speeds up,
throttles up a little bit, then all our seemingly balanced minds will become
imbalanced, everything will spin out of control. So movement is beautiful only
to a certain point. Once it crosses that point, movement becomes torture.
The Significance of Makar Sankranti
The
significance of the Makar Sankranti festival is that it marks the day where
there is a significant movement in the zodiac – the arrangement of the earth’s
dial around the sun – and this movement brings about a new change in the way we
experience the planet itself. There are many sankrantis through the year; the
two significant ones being Makar Sankranti, and right opposite, after summer
solstice is Karka Sankranti. In between, there are many Sankrantis – every time
the zodiac sign changes, it is called a Sankranti to suggest the movement of
the planet, to understand that our life is sustained and nourished by this
movement. If this movement ceases, everything about us will cease. On the 22nd
of December, the solstice
happened, that means in relation to the sun, the movement or the
tilt of the planet reaches its maximum. Now, from this day onwards, the
northern movement is strong. Things really start changing upon the earth. From
Makar Sankranti onwards, winter is being relieved step by step.
This
movement is also a significant aspect in the way we reap from this planet.
There was a time when human beings could eat only what the earth offered. Then
we learned how to get what we wanted from the earth; this is called
agriculture. When we were hunting and gathering, we only picked up what was there.
It is like when you were an infant, you ate or swallowed whatever your mother
gave you. When you became a child, you asked for what you wanted. So we grew up
a bit and started demanding and getting what we wanted, but still, you can only
get what you want to a point that She is willing. If you stretch it beyond
that, you will get it, you will get something else also. That is called
industrialization. Agriculture is coaxing the Mother to give what you want.
Industrialization is ripping her apart. This is to understand the way our minds
are transiting, the way human activity is transiting from one level to another.
So
this is a day when we remind ourselves that everything that we are is what we
take from this planet. Generally people are talking about giving. But from
where they give. You can only take – either you take gently or you grab. Did
you come with your own property from somewhere? What is there to give? You can
only take. Everything is offered. Take sensibly, that is all there is.
The harvest
festival
The
Makar Sankranti festival is also known and referred to as the harvest festival
because this is the time when harvesting is complete and there are big
celebrations. This is the day we acknowledge all those who assisted in making
the harvest. The farm animals play a huge role in harvesting, so the following
day is for them and is called Mattu
Pongal. The first day is for the earth, the second is for us and the
third is for the animals and livestock. See, they are placed a little higher
than us because we exist because of them, they do not exist because of us. If
we were not here, they would all be free and happy. But if they were not here,
we couldn’t live.
These festivals are a reminder that we need to craft our present and our future in
a conscious manner. Right now, we have harvested the previous year’s crop. How
to create the next one is being consciously planned by taking the animals also
into a consultative process. You should see how it happens in remote villages. There
are only a few remote ones left because in the last few years, everyone has a
cell phone and even Internet kiosks. But in the remote parts of India, you must
see how the future crops are planned in the village. It is something so amazing
and fantastic.
Cosmic connect
Makar Sankranti is a festival for harvest. But there are celestial and
spiritual connotations to it as well. It arose from certain yogic practices
that common people took up in ways that were relevant to them. This time is
most important for yogis to make a new, fresh effort in their spiritual
process. Accordingly, people who have family also make a fresh attempt in
whatever they do in their lives.
Many
aspects of the yogic system were evolved and developed based on the connection
between the celestial system and the human system, in order to make use of the
changes in position that happen in an incremental way, from moment to moment,
minute to minute, hour to hour, day to day.
For
example, the number 108 is significant in many ways in the construction of the
human system and the larger solar system. Traditionally, if you wear a mala, it has 108 beads. If you chant a mantra or go
around an energy space, it is 108 times. This is because there are 108 things
that one needs to do if one wants to have a complete mastery over the human
mechanism. In the human body, there are 114
chakras or points
where the nadis or energy channels meet in the body. Of these 114, 2 are
outside the physiological framework. Of the 112 chakras that are within the
physiological framework, actual work needs to be done on 108. If you manage to
activate these 108, the remaining 4 will naturally open up.
This
is also beautifully manifested in the planetary system in which we live. The
diameter of the Sun is 108 times the diameter of the Earth. The distance
between Sun and Earth is 108 times the diameter of the Sun. The distance
between Moon and Earth is 108 times the diameter of the Moon. And there are 108
padas (steps) in one lunar year. Planet Earth takes 13 ½ lunar revolutions or
one solar year to complete its orbit around the Sun. In this orbit it arranges
itself in 27 nakshatras or 108 padas, almost like the beads of a mala. Makar
Sankranti marks the completion of and the beginning of a new cycle.
Makar
Sankranti – Festival of movement
So
Makar Sankranti is a festival to recognize the movement, movement being celebration,
movement being life, movement being the process of life and the beginning and
the end of life. At the same time, the word ‘shankara’ is used to remind you
that the one behind this, Shiva,
is a still one; stillness is the basis of movement. Though all
the other planets are moving, the most important one is not moving. If the sun
also takes a walk, then we are in trouble. He hangs there not moving. That is
why everybody else’s movement is okay. But his stillness is relative because
the whole solar system may be moving; the whole galaxy may be moving. So beyond
that, the space which holds all this is absolute stillness.
When
a human being makes the necessary effort to touch the stillness within himself,
only then he knows the joy of movement. Otherwise, people are bewildered by the
movement of life. Every change that happens in their life they suffer. These
days, the so-called modern life is like this ¬– any change means you must
suffer. Childhood is tension, puberty is great suffering, middle age is
unbearable, old age is abhorred and feared, and death is celebration – no that
is pure terror. Every stage of life is a problem because people have a problem
with movement, not understanding that the very nature of life is movement. You
can only enjoy and celebrate movement if you have one leg stuck in stillness.
If you know what stillness is then movement would be a pleasure. If you do not
know what stillness is, if you have no contact with stillness, movement is
bewildering.
People
are trying to track the movement. Looking at the stars,
looking at lines in their hands and looking at all kinds of signs including the
tea leaves. People want to read the movement of their lives somehow. This
struggle with movement, this paranoia about movement, is happening because
there is no taste of stillness. If there was a taste of stillness in you,
movement would not disturb you. It is something which sets a certain rhythm.
Every rhythm has a beginning and an end; every movement has a beginning and an
end. Movement means that which is in transition. Stillness means that which
always is. Movement means compulsiveness, stillness means consciousness.
The
significance of Makar Sankranti is that it is the time to remind yourself that
celebrating movement is possible only when there is a taste of stillness within
you.
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